A Dublin criminal serving sentences for violent disorder and threatening to kill a garda has been given an extra two months in jail for having a phone hidden in a prison cell.
When told Leroy Dumberell had already been transferred from Mountjoy to Cork Prison as a punishment, Judge Alan Mitchell remarked: "Some people would like to move to Cork but Dubs tend not to".
Dumbrell (30) from Emmett Road, Inchicore, Dublin pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a mobile phone at his single occupancy cell in Mountjoy Prison on June 6th last.
It was the second time during his current seven-year sentence that he was caught unlawfully possessing a contraband mobile phone while in prison.
Judge Mitchell heard that Dumbrell had already been subject to internal disciplinary proceedings by being placed in solitary confinement for 40 days and he was moved to Cork Prison.
Dublin District Court heard that prison officers carried out a planned search of Dumbrell’s cell and found a small black phone concealed down the back of a toilet. The offence contrary to Section 36 of the Prisons Act can result in a jail term of up to one year and possible €5,000 fine.
The judge heard that Dumbrell has 71 prior criminal convictions and in January this year he was given a €99 fine at Dublin District Court for the same offence which occurred in October last year.
Dumbrell has been moved to Cork Prison but was brought back to Dublin for the hearing. Dressed in a tracksuit, he spoke to say he would be going back to Cork Prison after the case.
Judge Mitchell noted Dumbrell’s earlier convictions for the same offence and said the problem was that “he has not learned a lesson”.
He imposed a two-month sentence which is to run consecutively to Dumbrell’s current terms of imprisonment.